Tour May Finance Tennis Center Expansion

DELRAY BEACH — The city is betting a new tennis tournament will draw enough cash to pay for three extra courts and resurface a fourth at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.

City Manager David Harden said late last week that Delray Beach hopes to reap as much as $200,000 from selling the name of the center to a corporate sponsor of the Association of Tennis Professionals tour.

But right now, the city is looking for a more solid way to pay for the proposed expansion, which is subject to City Commission approval.

"We don't have a funding source identified," Harden said, adding that tax revenues might be one money source. "It could come from anywhere."

Resident Shirley Johnson, who lives in a predominantly black neighborhood where the streets are filled with potholes, said she hopes the city does not use tax money to pay for the expansion.

"I've always considered that stadium a white elephant," Johnson said.

"They've poured in good money after bad, and it hasn't made it yet. That's another reason why we haven't been able to get our streets paved. That mammoth white elephant is sitting there sucking up our funds."

Two years ago, the city spent about $30,000 to surface center court for the Nuveen tour, which is not coming back for the second year of its three-year contract because it could not find a sponsor, Harden said.

The tennis center now has four hard courts and 15 clay, including center court. The tournament would use two of the new hard courts, and the city plans to build another.

The three extra courts would cost about $100,000.

The city also plans to resurface center court from clay to a hard surface, costing another $30,000.

Another $70,000 would be required to purchase land for the expansion, Harden said.

As part of the expansion plans, the city is considering relocating the House of God Church on Northwest Third Avenue to another site in the same neighborhood, Harden said.

Another expansion option would be to close one block of Northwest Third Avenue to build the courts there. The city might work out a deal with a company seeking to redevelop the 300 block of West Atlantic Avenue, which the Community Redevelopment Agency now owns, Harden said.

Looking to finally make the tennis center carry its own financial weight, city commissioners in November approved a 10-year contract with the promoter of the ATP tournament, formerly known as America's Red Clay, to hold a nine-day portion of the tour each year, beginning in May.

The tournament will switch to a March date next year to attract more top players.

The $80 million tour lasts from January until November, attracting professional, mid-level players to cities all over the world -- but mainly in Europe.

As part of the November agreement, Delray Beach will spend more than $1 million over 10 years to host its portion of the tournament here.

The tournament boosts the city's economy by attracting players and fans to restaurants and hotels, Harden said.